The post-2020 Common Agricultural Policy and Water Management in the Danube River Basin - ICPDR

The post-2020 Common
Agricultural Policy and
Water Management in
the Danube River Basin
Position Paper                                                                            Document number: IC 212
                                                                                                   Version: final
                                                                                                      Date: 20-March-2019

ICPDR / International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River / www.icpdr.org

The post-2020 Common Agricultural Policy and Water Management in the Danube River Basin 2

Imprint

Published by:
ICPDR – International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River

© ICPDR 2019

Contact
ICPDR Secretariat
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secretariat@icpdr.org / www.icpdr.org

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The post-2020 Common Agricultural Policy and Water Management in the Danube River Basin 3

Discussions on the post-2020 Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) have started with the proposed EC
Regulation (COM (2018) 392), which details the regulatory framework for a "future-proof" CAP. The
suggested increased ambition regarding environmental and climate protection in response to
international commitments, EU environmental challenges and societal expectations is highly desirable.
The proposal aims at strengthening the connection of CAP support to the compliance of farmers with
obligations to protect the environment, public, animal and plant health as well as animal welfare
established as conditions for area related payments. A new enhanced conditionality is proposed as an
integral part of the future CAP framework, which would replace the current ‘greening’ and cross-
compliance. It would set the baseline for more ambitious and sustainable agricultural commitments
through the adoption of good farming practices and standards by farmers. The introduction of the
Water Framework Directive (WFD) and the Sustainable Use of Pesticides Directive into the
conditionality would support their implementation and the achievement of their specific objectives. In
addition, new Good Agricultural and Environmental Conditions could potentially have a positive
impact on water quality. Such an addition would bring a dedicated tool for optimizing on-farm nutrient
management and protect peatlands and wetlands. Conditionality would be mandatory for Member
States to implement and for those receiving direct payments to comply with.
The post-2020 CAP envisages requiring all Member States to prepare a CAP Strategic Plan, where
specific objectives would have to be achieved through targeted actions for improving the economic,
social and environmental performance of the agricultural sector and rural areas. The Strategic Plans
would aim at providing an opportunity to the Member States to design funding and interventions more
targeted to the local needs and situations. The Strategic Plans would also include strengthened
advisory systems for farmers supporting knowledge transfer and innovation.
According to the proposal, the new conditionality would link farmers' income support to the
application of environment- and climate-friendly farming practices. Moreover, agri-environment-
climate commitments and eco-schemes would also be important elements of the CAP Strategic Plans
and would support farmers in maintaining and enhancing sustainable farming methods going beyond
mandatory requirements and relevant conditions. At least 30% of each rural development national
allocation would have to be dedicated to environmental and climate measures with the possibility of
higher EU contribution in the funding. The new eco-scheme measures, which are to be defined by the
Member States and to be funded from national direct payment allocations, would also address the
environmental and climate objectives of the CAP.
Sustainable nutrient and drought management are highly challenging issues in the Danube River Basin
(DRB) and need to be addressed. Nutrient pressure from agricultural diffuse sources could increase
and affect the status of surface waters, groundwater and the Black Sea. In the context of climate
change, the duration and magnitude of drought events are forecast to be increasing in summer months.
Such extreme weather conditions could trigger serious water scarcity issues. The International
Commission for the Protection of the Danube River (ICPDR) as the coordinating body for
transboundary water management in the DRB is committed to assist Danube countries with addressing
these challenges.
Therefore, the ICPDR:
     welcomes the efforts of the CAP legislative proposal to enhance the environmental and climate
      performance of agriculture and emphasises the importance of CAP’s contribution to the
      achievement of the objectives of the WFD, the Nitrates Directive and other related
      environmental legislation by including them in its enhanced conditionality.
     is convinced that the development of effective and sustainable management options requires a
      strong involvement and cooperation of the agricultural and water sectors, and therefore calls for
      a partnership-dialogue to develop a cross-sectoral and mutual understanding of needs,
      expectations and constrains of both, the agriculture and the water sector. This desirable dialogue

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The post-2020 Common Agricultural Policy and Water Management in the Danube River Basin 4

        can lead to joint actions, which can be beneficial for water and the aquatic environment, while
        keeping the needs of the agricultural sector in mind.
     emphasises the need for synergies between CAP interventions and the measures identified in the
      River Basin Management Plans in order to trigger efficient nutrient management, to avoid water
      scarcity and to contribute to the achievement of the objectives of the WFD.
     is convinced that the active and early involvement of environmental authorities in Member
      States as well as taking environmental knowledge and planning tools (e.g. River Basin
      Management Plans) into closer consideration could support the design of relevant and effective
      CAP Strategic Plans.
     supports the proposed CAP Strategic Plans as appropriate policy tools to implement financial
      instruments and targeted measures in order to decouple agricultural production from water
      pollution and water scarcity caused by agriculture so that a sound development of agriculture is
      ensured and the environmental objectives in the DRB and the Black Sea coastal areas are
      achieved in a cost-effective manner.
     considers the CAP proposal of applying targeted instruments and tools to assist farmers in an
      efficient use of fertilizers at farm level adjusted to crop nutrient demand and soil nutrient
      content beneficial, appreciates the appropriate national tools already in place and expresses its
      availability for supporting Danube countries if an update or implementation of such tools is
      needed.
     supports using instruments to compensate income forgone and additional costs of farmers
      resulting from the implementation of the WFD going beyond relevant conditionality and
      encourages Member States to make use of this form of support in their CAP Strategic Plans.
     welcomes enhanced efforts on education, training, cooperation, innovation and better
      information systems (Farm Advisory Services integrated within the Agricultural Knowledge
      and Innovation Systems) to be provided for farmers to improve the economic as well as the
      ecological performance of land managers especially in the context of an efficient nutrient and
      water management.
     emphasizes that the proposed CAP Strategic Plans should encourage farm advisory services to
      support farmers in improving the overall sustainable management of their holdings. The
      strengthened advisory services should be able to deliver up-to-date technological and scientific
      information developed by research and innovation, as well as to familiarise farmers to the
      obligations emanating from the Statutory Management Requirements of the conditionality
      system (e.g. Nitrates, Water Framework and Sustainable Use of Pesticides Directives).
     stresses that the effective implementation of the measures in the WFD Programs of Measures,
      which go beyond the legal requirements and obligations of the Nitrates Directive have to be
      accompanied by a supportive agricultural funding regime, which takes into account different
      circumstances in different countries and regions. The involvement of the EU at each stage of the
      CAP strategic planning, setting rules, assessing plans, monitoring progress and ensuring
      delivery is highly important and needs to be coupled with an ambitious national planning,
      targeted measures and appropriate knowledge and information sharing.
     supports the tailor-made design of measures on the national level within the CAP Strategic
      Plans according to specific needs and encourages Member States to take into account their
      agricultural structures, different farm sizes, favourable and less favourable areas, environmental
      impacts and potential administrative burden when designing and implementing measures.
     emphasises its readiness to support Member States in the process of needs assessment and the
      creation of synergies across Danube countries in order to jointly design coherent measures that
      respond to common pressures in the Danube River Basin.

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The post-2020 Common Agricultural Policy and Water Management in the Danube River Basin 5

The ICPDR strongly supports the efforts to be made for achieving sustainable agriculture thus
ensuring the profitability of agriculture and the vitality of rural areas, to safeguard water resources and
to achieve and maintain good status of ground- and surface water resources. The ICPDR is willing to
contribute to the national CAP Strategic Plans of the Danube countries by highlighting the potential of
effective funding mechanisms and instruments for improving nutrient and drought management
practices and by transferring relevant knowledge and best practice examples to the Danube countries.
In line with the EC initiative of aligning water and agricultural policies in the CAP the ICPDR has
launched a dialogue with the agricultural sector aiming at the development of a guidance document on
sustainable agriculture. The guidance will offer Danube countries support for the preparation and
implementation of the national agro-environmental policies, CAP Strategic Plans and relevant
strategies of the River Basin Management Plans. It will provide a consistent policy framework with a
set of recommended instruments and tools to facilitate national water and agricultural decision making
and to identify common goals, set up tailor-made policies and implement joint actions and cost-
effective measures.

ICPDR / International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River / www.icpdr.org